Tufa, Sky, and Water

Tufa, Sky, and Water
“Tufa, Sky, and Water” — An island of tufa formations under early morning sky, Mono Lake.

I think of this photograph, in part, as a study in tones. I had been photographing a brilliant sunrise in color, but as the first wild sunrise colors diminished I began to think about monochrome. (Of course, my camera being digital, I was capturing color images, though monochrome results were in my mind.) The brightest areas of the clouds were extremely bright, while the facing side of the tufa formations, being backlit, were very close to black. My plan was to control the bright areas in the exposure and then lift the shadows in post, just enough to hint at details on the tufa.

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Wheat Field, The Cotswolds

Wheat Field, The Cotswolds
“Wheat Field, The Cotswolds” — Trails cross a large wheat field in the Cotswolds.

At the end of May and beginning of June we waked for a week through England’s Cotswolds district hills. Our route took us from town to town, and each night we stayed in civilized accommodations. Yes, this is a lot different that the Sierra Nevada backpacking that I’ve done for decades! This area is, it seems, vacation country for a lot of Britons, and some of those towns can be pretty busy. After a day walking the green hills and woods, it can be something of a shock to enter them — but then again, there were comfortable beds and good food!

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Tuolumne Meadows, Evening

Tuolumne Meadows, Evening
“Tuolumne Meadows, Evening” — The day’s last sunlight on Lembert Dome the Sierra Crest.

My landscape photography often involves what might be described as hunting. I look for the potential of good light conditions and for locations with subject and compositional promise and then I… hunt. I wander, I go with hunches. I use what I know about light and terrain — but often I very much do not set out with a specific photograph in mind. This photograph was not made that way.

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Old Tree and Cotswalds Woods

Old Tree and Cotswalds Woods
“Old Tree and Cotswalds Woods” — Old tree in a clearing in a Cotswolds forest.

I have written about my fascination with the very old and often very large trees that we saw on our weeklong spring walk in England’s Cotswolds. Many of the large trees stand apart, often in open areas or in rows between fields and pastures. This one, however, was close to a managed forest of smaller trees, which I presume are destined to become lumber when they grow larger.

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